Sara Noonan

Day 5 – Barcelona

This is city is just amazing. If I spoke Catalan, I would move here in a heartbeat.

James and I have been struggling to wake up in the mornings – something I am attributing to jet lag because 8:30 a.m. in Barcelona is 2:30 a.m. back at home. We somehow manage and then at 11 p.m./12 a.m. we aren’t quite ready for bed, but force ourselves to go to sleep.

We had tickets for Gaudi’s house at the Park Guell for 10 a.m. – which meant pealing ourselves out of bed and fumbling around. We were running late so turned to Google to share with us the fastest route to our destination. Google noted there was a quicker route (2 minutes less!) if we got off a different subway stop. Great! We start heading for the Park and suddenly come to the most massive hill – a San Francisco like hill with stairs built in at places because it is literally too steep to climb without.

I’m not sure if we made it there any faster. The energy we put out to run up this massive hill – was it worth it? Gaudi’s house is cute and situated in the center of the Park, which was built in the early 1900s. He moved there with his sick father and niece to be away from the city and be able to oversee the construction of the park. The park however, was a failure, as only two homes were built on the land, and eventually the project shut down. The place was still fascinating and so we will be going back on Sunday to explore another area we didn’t get to due to crowds.

In case you’re wondering – Gaudi lived surprisingly simply.

Afterwards, James and I headed back to the apartment to cool down and decide what we wanted to do for lunch. Almost everything was closed until 1:30 or 2:00 p.m., and we had to be at la Basilica de Sagrada Familia at 2:30. We opted to head to la Boqueria market – since we only ran through the day before. It did not disappoint – I had a cone filled with cheese and Iberian ham, along with some delicious paella and cut up pineapple. James shared in my cheese and ham, also purchased pizza (because we’re close to Italy right?) and enjoyed a strawberry mango juice. Satisfied, we headed towards la Basilica.

La Basilica de Sagrada Familia is hands down one of the most amazing places I have ever been. The church was designed with Gaudi’s whimsical touch, from the palm tree ceilings, the stained glass, the statues and more. It is an absolutely fantastical experience (even if you aren’t religious!). We were just in complete awe, and spent three hours looking up at the ceiling with mouths agape. We toured the Nativity tower, which provides a fabulous view of the city to the water, and then proceeded to make our way down a never ending spiral staircase.

If you ever find yourself in Barcelona, I highly encourage you to visit.

Afterwards, we headed back to the apartment to rest until dinner, which was at Montjuic. To get there, one must take this crazy subway car that climbs the side of the mountain. I am just thankful I didn’t have to walk. The restaurant was a recommendation from a former coworker. Reviews on Google were OK, but she swore by it, so we decided to give it a go. The place (called Xalet de Montjuic) was amazing. It boasted the most beautiful view of the city and the food was delicious.

James and I shared patatas bravas and grilled octopus. I had salmon with bacon, gorgonzola and tomato jam. James had duck confit with a citrus cake.

From the restaurant, we headed to the Magic Fountain. This lived up to its name. Using colored lights and music, the fountain puts on shows all night long. It was better than fireworks. I sat entranced for nearly 40 minutes, before finally saying goodbye.

Day 4 – Barcelona

The train ride from Madrid to Barcelona was uneventful – with a few quick scenes of the countryside and near the end, of the ocean. We arrived in Barcelona, hungry and ready to move our legs. From the moment we stepped out of the subway and onto the street, I was in love. We arrived at our AirBnb around 1:00 p.m. and the host graciously met us, shared a few restaurants we should try and pointed us in the direction of the nearest grocery store.

After stocking up on provisions (you know, eggs, cheese, wine…) we set off to enjoy a tapas filled lunch at La Catalana. We ordered patatas bravas, tortilla de espana, California ensalada (clearly this came with avocado), pescado frito, manchego queso and roasted asparagus and mushrooms. When you order cheese in Spain, they deliver cheese – and a lot of it.

I already ate a piece before taking this. So much cheese.

Stuffed to the brim, we continued on our walking tour of the city – taking in Las Ramblas (think of the Mediterranean equivalent of Time Square), a quick run through El Mercado de Boqueria and finally down to the water. On our way back, I suggested we take an alternative route, since one only needs to see Las Ramblas once. We ended up in an area with cute shops and stumbled across a store entitled 2 Pugs. This was fate. We found ourselves in a cute shop filled with geeky scifi and movie reference, pop art and a very excited salesman.

We returned to the apartment, changed and embarked on a journey to Aire de Barcelona – an authentic Turkish bath experience. There we spent 90 minutes lounging in six different types of baths (salt, Jacuzzi, Turkish, warm, hot and cold) until our fingers and toes were pruned. While not as amazing as Blue Lagoon, it was a great entry to the city, and a nice relaxing way to work off the 30+ miles we had walked in Madrid over the course of three days.

We slowly made our way back to the apartment, and cooked a very late dinner of gluten free pasta with fresh peppers, Iberian ham and cheese of course.

This all being said – I love Barcelona. I could spent an entire week (or two!) here – walking, taking in the beautiful architecture, eating cheese, drinking wine, lounging, bathing… the list goes on and on. If I could understand Catalan, it would be even better. But for now I’ll remain 50% fluent in Spanish and one day I’ll learn how to say “amb Gel” (which means on ice).

Day 3 – Madrid

It was our last day in Madrid – and unfortunately we hit a few bumps in the road related to forgetting tickets and being hangry. But we’ll get to that later.

James and I left the apartment and headed to el Templo del Debod – a temple that was gifted from Egypt to Spain in the late 1960s. From what I could understand (remember I’m only 50% fluent in reading Spanish!), this had to do with Spain helping to preserve or conserve some artifacts. The temple is on the outskirts of la plaza de España, and is situated on a reflection pool. A man outside is screaming “AGUA FRIA. TENGO AGUA FRIA.”

Visitors are actually able to go through the temple, which was a nice surprise. The rooms are small and cramped, which also means hot and smells like BO. We were intending to go to Goya’s burial site (which boasts infrequently seen frescoes) when I realized I had left the tickets to a cable car attraction at the apartment. We opted to take the train back, and made a quick pit stop at el Mercado de San Martin.

I don’t like ordering from butchers in America, I don’t know why I thought I would like doing this in a foreign country in a foreign language. Overwhelmed by the prospect, and not quite knowing what I wanted to make for dinner, I left in a huff and headed to a MASSIVE big box store a few blocks from where we were staying.

First, I found a Starbucks. This seems silly, but the coffee here is espresso and nothing is iced. Ordering meat at a market? No way. Ordering coffee and chai tea latte? Yes please. (And no this was not done in Engish – though I did manage to butcher con hielo for my coffee so it ended up being hot. This was fine; I was in a massive store with AC blasting).

Let’s discuss this store. You walk in to a Macy’s style layout – perfume and makeup counters, purses, clothes, the works. Another level is full on gourmet grocery store, another is a regular grocery store with a butcher and cheese shop. There is a pharmacy and a Starbucks, and their equivalent of a Target. Everything you could possibly need is there. We went to the grocery store and picked up provisions to make dinner. Afterwards, as we walked back through the Macy’s like store, I discovered the Longchamp section.

Longchamp in New England is a thing. I don’t know why, I’m sure it is elsewhere in the country, but it’s part of being a “Basic Boston” and I absolutely adore my giant black bag that can hold everything from my laptop, 1L water bottle, a change of clothes, extra shoes and everything else a purse needs to contain. I’ve had mine for a few years the bottom has started to wear out. I know I can pay to get this fixed, but the entire bottom is literally sprouting holes, and when pens stick through them, they write on my shirt. I also don’t have a backup for when this would be fixed, and so here we were – in Europe – with access to bags that are literally half the price that they are in the U.S. because of the amazing exchange rate and the lack of importing overseas.

After dropping the groceries off at the apartment, we headed to Gonzales de Queso, which is a famed cheese and tapas restaurant and a place I’ve been eyeing since planning this trip. They weren’t open. This was tragic. I did what I always do when I’m hangry – I shut down (sorry James!). We eventually found a tapas place near el Museo de Sofia Reina and devoured patatas bravas, paella and a roasted red pepper dish with tuna.

El Museo de Sofia Reina is… a modern art museum. It’s interesting. We’ll put it that way. There were however, many Picassos and Dalis, and some of the sections were actually interesting. Others – well lets just say I have a hard time with some modern art. I can paint a canvas blue and glue a stick to the bottom too. The museum is known for housing Guernica – one of Picasso’s masterpieces. There was a significant amount of articles from the U.S. in the 60s and 70s, outlining the different museums that once featured this painting.

Afterwards, we finally made our way back to the cable car ride. We were incredibly hot by the time we found it and proceeded to load into a small, no air-conditioning car built in the 60s that precariously wheeled its way across the city of Madrid.

Out of my comfort zone? Oh that doesn’t even begin to cover it. This was terrifying – but the views were pretty spectacular. I thought if I could do the London Eye then of course I could do this. I guess the difference is, I didn’t fear for my life on the London Eye.

For dinner that evening, I made rosemary garlic mashed potatoes, sautéed peppers, mushrooms and arugula, and steak.

Afterwards we headed over to “The Roof,” a rooftop bar in the Hotel ME. The views here are spectacular, and it was a nice way to end our time in Madrid and help even out some of the bumps we came across throughout the day – even if I did spend a ridiculous fee for a glass of wine.

Day 2: Madrid

Day 2- my birthday! We started out the day by eating breakfast in bed (and enjoying the beautiful view and not quite too hot air that floated in). At around 10 a.m., James and I headed to the Parque del Retiro, home of the crystal palace. It was another 100+ degree day, which meant seeking out shade and rationing water.

The park itself is beautiful, and a pleasant oasis from the heat of the city. We strolled around, found the crystal palace, among other monuments, and took a page of the public yoga practitioners book and went barefoot in the shaded grass.

There was an art exhibit going on at the same time which included a man meditating and laying around under the sheet tent behind me.

Overcome by the incredible heat, we eventually sought refuge in the Prado museum – which is filled primarily with religious works of art, because this is Spain afterall. Around 12:30 we started to fade and sought out the museum cafe where I proceeded to order dos tortillas de patatas, uno cafe con leche y uno te negro. Nailed it. Minus the fact that I forgot to order James milk for his tea, but we’ll take what we can get!

After being revived by refreshments, we tackled the rest of the museum and then headed to Celiocioso – the only gluten free bakery in Spain (or least the only one I found!). Their specialty? Cupcakes. I of course ordered more than I could eat, and picked up half a loaf of queso pan (cheese bread!).

We headed back to the apartment for siesta – which everyone seems to take seriously here. So I enjoyed my cupcakes with some bubbly while soaking my feet in the bathtub. The only true way to enjoy siesta.

James and I had tickets to tour the Royal Palace at 5 p.m. The security here was questionable. No one looked at our tickets. I set off the metal detector but the guards let me through when they realized I could only speak un poco espanol. Much different than our experience at Buckingham palace which required multiple scanners and check points.

The palace itself is insane. Each room was gorgeous. Over the top of course, but everything had a theme and was planned out very well. Almost every ceiling had a fresco. Art work was tasteful. The dining room was breathtaking, with a table that sat 130 individuals at a time.

After the tour, we headed over to Corral de Moreria, a famed flamenco spot. I was not expecting much in the way of dinner – this was a dancing establishment afterall. Boy was I wrong. The food was fabulous. We both ordered a tasting menu and had gazpacho, sea bass, lamb and chocolate. They brought me a whole pitcher of sangria which I barely made a dent in.

When we left around 10 p.m. the sun was still out. This is just so weird to me. How do people function here?! Clearly they don’t go to bed as early as I like to.

Day 1: Madrid

We made it! And to continue the tradition I started on my honeymoon, I’ve decided to blog our way through Spain as well.

The trip really started on the plane to Madrid. Departing at 5:40 p.m. in Boston meant arriving in Madrid at 6:30 a.m. local time. The last red eye I took with James was painful. Typically if I don’t get enough sleep, I’m the monster. When James can’t sleep on a plane we reverse roles. But this plane ride was extra special, because two rows in front of us – there was a two year old and an infant. Let’s just say that I was unaware that a child could literally scream for six and a half hours without breaking or working themselves up into eventual slumber. By the time the crew served breakfast (a mere three hours after dinner), I never hated a baby so much in my life.

We arrived at our apartment around 8:45 a.m. After being let in by a colleague of our AirBnb host (who spoke about three words in English – asleep, tired and no) we crashed into a wonderful two hour nap. This AirBnb is gorgeous and perfectly located. A studio apartment with a miniature kitchen, AC, beautiful view and full sized bathroom is perfect for our time here.

After waking up around 11:30 a.m. we got dressed and headed out to el mercado de San Miguel – a famed tapas market a few blocks from our apartment.

Ordering tapas in Spanish, with a gluten intolerance was slightly overwhelming, but we came across some vegetarian paella and shrimp gazpacho – making my day much better – given that I had not eaten anything since 7 p.m. on the plane. James ordered “tres oysters.”

Completely melted at this point (it was about 100F), we found a grocery store, picked up some provisions and headed back to the apartment for siesta. We ventured out again to buy James a belt and shorts, both of which he left on the floor at home. But this okay because James loves clothing from Europe. Something about them that makes shopping tolerable.

Around 5 p.m. we headed over to the Real Madrid stadium for a tour. I would like to preface this by saying I am not soccer fan (though I have nothing against soccer). This tour was amazing. Attendees start by walking to the very top (painful) to be greeted by an amazing panorama view of the stadium.

This stadium holds 85,000 people. This is almost three times the size of Fenway park. And almost 20,000 more than Gillette.

We continued on our tour to see practically every trophy the team ever won (hundreds? maybe an exaggeration but there are a lot of them), soccer jerseys and shoes from 1910s and on, ridiculous holographic books that you can turn the pages on, a stream of gold confetti as the backdrop of the bigger trophies and more. When we thought the tour was over, we were surprised to find ourselves now on the field, on the benches that this team sits on when they aren’t playing. Benches? Oh you mean Audi sponsored memory foam THRONES. Yeah those.

The tour finished with the player’s locker room which contains a hot tub, spray shower stall and massage tables.

We had two hours to kill before dinner. I was starving, so we decided to do a little tapas hopping. Sadly, the kitchen of the place I chose was closed but I was able to order myself a glass of wine and water. Keep in mind I hadn’t had anything to eat since my shrimp gazpacho and it was around 7. We found a park and watched dogs play fetch in a fountain until our reservation at O’Pazo – a seafood restaurant.

Many of you told me that I would be fine, that everyone here speaks English. Let’s just say I am really glad I spent six months using Duolingo because I would be screwed (although I haven’t yet been able to ask… cuantos elefantes comen arroz?). I fumbled through ordering dinner – an English menu was only slightly helpful since most of the waiters didn’t speak it! I asked for a glass of rose. Or at least I thought I did. Wine here is so ridiculously inexpensive, that when they brought over a whole bottle, I was completely not ready for it!

To make me feel less like a lush, James had about an inch in his glass for show and tell. I took this sneaky picture to document this.

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I was unable to drink it all.

For dinner, we shared a warm asparagus and tomato salad with a vinaigrette, grilled sole and grilled sea bass, and a side salad. Full to the brim, we rolled ourselves out of the restaurant, only to find that the sun still hadn’t set at 10 p.m.

Day 9: London

The final full day!

James and I decided to kickstart the day by going to Camden, which is rumored to have amazing markets, street food vendors and an overall funky feel. We arrive and pop into the first market we saw – Camden Market.

Camden Market is filled with sketchy people, a lot of t-shirts we could get anywhere in the U.S. and a hundred signs warning us about pickpocketers. Then we see a sign in the distance for Camden Lock – the artisan market we came here for.

For a Wednesday, this was a happening market. It was like the South End Open Market but bigger and grander. Had we come on a weekend, we would have run into a farmers market and antique market. We walked through vendor stalls, admired the street food and bought a few things here and there. The food was definitely the highlight and for those of us with crazy diets hard to find accommodations for it, this was pure gold. Every other street cart had gluten free options (some paleo too!). I opted for a pumpkin and cheddar empanada and a chicken empanada, served atop a coleslaw with plantain chips and salsa. James ordered a pulled pork sandwich with the works.

I take the most flattering pictures of James don’t I?

Afterwards we went to check out two shops we passed earlier in the day – Cookie Scream (a gluten free vegan bakery) and Nitro (an ice cream shop that makes its goodies using liquid nitrogen on the spot).

Food coma. This was a pecan cinnamon sticky something (that’s literally what it was called). It was amazing.

James ordered a brownie-wich from Nitro, which vanilla ice cream inside.

Afterwards we rolled ourselves back to the Tube – we had some ridiculous ticket package for Buckingham Palace and needed a few hours to tackle it.

We started the day in the Queen’s Gallery, which was featuring art on the early Georgians and how they came to power. Each room was filled with paintings, letters, war maps and furniture. I personally found the section on William Hogarth the most interesting. Hogarth was a print maker during the 1700s and one of the first people to use pictures to depict a story (think comic book but hundreds of years ago) and make money off of it. 2/3 of the way through, my audio tour died. Very sad.

Next we moved into the Royal Mews and learned all about the stage coaches the royal family uses.

This stagecoach was built in the 1800s. It’s used for coronations and last used during the Queen’s Golden Jubilee. It weighs four tons, takes a HUGE team of horses to pull and one week to move out of this building.

Our final stop on our Royal Day Out tour was the State rooms – or the public rooms in Buckingham Palace. There’s no photography allowed, but if you see a picture of the royal family in an indoor setting, it’s probably in one of these rooms. This portion of the tour was ridiculous and James and I understood why there was a desire to start a new life in the U.S. The ceilings and walls were dripping with gold. Silk was everywhere. Paintings, including those from the Renaissance, cluttered the walls. It was absolutely ridiculous. The one thing I noticed was that the castle, despite its age, did not have an old smell about it (Highclere castle did for example). It was also the only building in London that we saw window screens being put to use.

We left Buckingham palace and headed back to the flat to pack up and get ready for our dinner – a fourteen course meal at Kitchen Table.

Kitchen Table is tucked behind a hot dog joint (which was bustling!). You enter through some secret curtains into this amazing open kitchen with a bar set up around it. There’s an exclusive 19 person maximum seating each night and the chefs create a new menu EVERY DAY based on what ingredients are available through their network of hunters, farmers, fishers and cheese makers. We ended up with 16 courses and my attempt to take notes on each course is below. I will tell you, this was definitely adventurous and finally beat our favorite place in Iceland for the best meal of the trip.

Oyster: Raw oyster served on the half shell, with herbs
Shrimp: Rare, small shrimps served raw on a chick pea cracker; we also received the shrimp heads fried to enjoy afterwards
Chicken: Chicken skin made into a cracker spread with rosemary marscapone and bacon jam
Bonus course! Pig: Pig head slowly cooked over night and fried. Served on an anchovies dressing
Scallop: Fresh scallop from Scotland with sea salt and raw pickle mayonnaise and roe of scallop smoked and grated on top
Sea trout: From the Shetland islands, lightly warmed, served on top of a collection of sea vegetables with dried seaweed powder and a sauce made from the fish bones
Cep: wild forests mushrooms sautéed and raw with chestnuts made into a powder and an oil
Duck: Duck leg and neck cooked in its fat and rolled in pastry and fried; served with duck sauce and damson (plum)
Bonus course! Pigeon: Pigeon liver as a mousse, served as a parfait with Cobb nuts and English truffles; served with buttered toast
Lamb: Cornish lamb belly with sorrel and creme fraise; drizzled with olive oil from the Vatican (i.e. really old)
Cheese: Devon blue cheese with green gauges plum cooked in a puff pastry and served with a plum caramel
Raspberry: raspberry sauce with goat curd ice cream
Caramel: caramel ice cream, caramel whipped cream, caramel drizzle and hazelnut caramel
Pine: Young pine tips pickled and turned into an ice cream covered in dark chocolate
Black Currant: Black currant paste made into a marshmallow and toasted
Vanilla: Madagascar vanilla fudge with sea salt

This was… intense. Some of the dishes forced us to be super adventurous with our taste buds… shrimps heads? RAW shrimp? Pigeon?! I am thankful we didn’t receive the pigeon brains (someone did last week). But it was a lot of fun and super over the top.

Thanks London, you’ve been amazing! We’re so excited to come home and if you’re lucky, we may let you try some of our goodies from Honeydukes.

Day 8: London

We decided to spend the morning lounging around, making pancakes (because this Airbnb had gluten free flour in the pantry!) and taking our time (i.e. sleeping in). Because I don’t sleep in, and the upstairs neighbor likes to run around frantically by 7:30 a.m. I was awake earlier than intended. So I decided to get going with the pancake project. Two minutes into ingredient sourcing, I somehow managed to drop a glass half filled with wine that I didn’t finish the night before. We also had no paper towels, glass everywhere and wine on a lot of clean clothes. Luckily James expects this to happen to me on any given day, so he was ready to help clean up and make an emergency run to the grocery store.

I do say, our pancakes were a success, even without syrup and bacon.

At this point of our trip, I began to feel a bit homesick. I can master a seven day vacation but a 10 day? I start to yearn for home and for comfort. I was also beginning to get annoyed with the musty smell this apartment has. It really is its only downside. If they weren’t so expensive I would buy a dehumidifier and place it in the middle of this place and leave it to make a point. But I digress. So given that I felt homesick and Squeaky sad, James planned our day. We headed off to Guildhall to check out the Magna Carta.

This was a very good museum and its free! On our way to the bathroom (when there is a free restroom in London you use it, even if you don’t have to go), we stumbled upon the Magna Carta and read about early London history and its production. According to the museum, this is the best preserved Magna Carta in existence. And they are probably right, it was pretty flawless despite the fact we could read zero percent of the words (that fancy writing man…). And so we proceeded to tackle the museum from bottom up (the opposite of what we were told to do).

Also by the restrooms was the London Roman Amphitheater. This was SO cool. When Guildhall was being rebuilt, they came across the structure of the amphitheater, which they knew had to exist since the Romans ruled the land 2,000 some years ago but had ceased to discover. The building plans had to be revised to accommodate their new finding, and now visitors are able to walk among the ruins, view the pipe system to pump water out of the theater (SO COOL) and learn about the early days of London.

The upstairs was filled with paintings including Copley’s largest painting which took up a significant portion of the gallery. We left feeling like we got our money’s worth. That’s for sure.

We opted to do a quick lunch and were determined to go to this place we saw on our way to Guildhall – Pull’d. Sadly, it was still under construction so we crossed the street to Pod to enjoy an overly healthy, multigrain, multi kale meal.

Our next stop was the Millennium bridge. For my Harry Potter fans out there, this is the bridge in the sixth movie that the dementors destroy.

We of course walked across it. The bridge is famed for having an amazing view of St. Paul’s.

We were spit out at the entrance to Globe Theater. James felt it didn’t look authentic enough to visit so we continued our journey which eventually took us to the London Eye. After a quick debate on whether or not to do it, we decided to give it a go, because when are we going to do this again? The ride goes slow enough that I could cope and I had to pretend that I wasn’t in a huge glass bubble in the city. But the views are spectacular.

It was very bright and I made James take off his sunglasses.

Afterwards we enjoyed a bubble tea by the dirty Thames shore and moved along to the Tate museum, our last stop before dinner.

The Tate, also “free,” opened up to a huge display of trash. I don’t know what it is about James and I, art museums and trash as an exhibit, but this happens a lot.

This exhibit had to do something with the river. Very obvious, right?

We moved along through the many galleries – through the 1500s, through the 1900s. Eventually fatigue was winning, so we sought out galleries that had large benches that would allow us to sit, review and read everything in the room and then go to the next gallery with a bench. After walking 10 – 15 miles a day for 8 days, this is what your body does to you.

But no amount of tiredness could prevent me from getting to our final destination: St. John’s Bread & Wine for dinner. Folks, this was on the list of places I’ve been dying to go to. The couple who own this restaurant frequently contribute recipes to Bon Appetit and are interviewed on the reg. They’ve provided me with masterful roast recipes I’ve made around the holidays, wowing friends and family alike. It was time to go to the mecca.

The restaurant itself is incredibly simple. Wooden tables, wooden chairs, simple glasses and dishware. It’s no frills because the food speaks for itself. I started with salted mackerel with potatoes, creme fraishe and watercress. It was like jumping into the ocean while wrapped up in a giant cozy blanket all at once. James ordered the mussels which were equally as delicious. For our main course, I ordered the duck leg with bacon and dates. James ordered the grouse (it rhymes with house).

The duck leg was amazing. It fell right off the bone and was complemented by fatty pieces of bacon and the sweetness of the medjool date. I was in duck heaven.

James’ grouse was literally a whole bird, shot earlier that day, served pretty pink. We both thought it tasted a bit like beef. It was certainly gamey, but we can handle gamey. It was when James came across the bullet hole and some blood that he lost interest in his grouse. He lost more interest when my meal came and was jealous. So much for being adventurous!

St. John’s redeemed itself for James with dessert. He ordered an apple crumb cake which came with homemade vanilla ice cream. I ordered raspberry swirl ice cream which was absolutely delightful.

To read more about the Henderson’s (co-owners of St. John): http://www.bonappetit.com/people/chefs/article/the-fantastic-mr-and-mrs-henderson

Day 7: London & Newbury

Ugh. Woke up with the start of a cold! Good thing I packed plenty of DayQuil and Advil to get me through the next few days!

Today was the day that James had to drive on the “wrong” side of the road. Why? Because we were going to Highclere castle! For those of you who aren’t in the know, Highclere is the place that Downton Abbey is filmed. It’s an epic building for an epic television show. The castle is only opened 60 – 70 days a year for the public to walk through as it is still the home of Earl and Countess Carnarvon as well as a television set. It’s nearly impossible to get tickets and a stroke of luck if you are in London when the castle is actually opened. In February, I stalked the Highclere castle website waiting for the summer dates and tickets to be released. We were in the luck, the castle would be open for a few weeks through September 17.

James and I started our journey at Enterprise in Hammersmith (when a quick Google search the night before revealed that the original destination we intended to pick our car up at was in fact much further north than we had anticipated and that there were actually two places with the exact same address in this city. Not cool city builders, not cool). Yes, it is just as weird to climb into the front seat as a passenger on the driver’s side as it is to climb in the passenger seat as a driver.

My savvy navigation skills (and a little help from Google Maps) brought us to the highway that we took for nearly 50 miles (this trip was the equivalent of going from Boston to the Cape). Unlike other trips we’ve taken through and out of London, this drive was beautiful. In fact, you could have told us that we were driving on Route 2 towards Vermont back at home and we would have believed you – minus the fact that everything is backwards in this car.

We arrived at Highclere around noon, enough time to walk the castle grounds and grab a hot lunch in their tearoom before we could explore the building itself and also attend the Egyptian exhibit (more on that later). The castle is just as grand as they make it out to be on Downton, and it was exciting that we were finally here.

Approaching the castle from the parking lot.

Enjoying a pot of tea and some overcooked chicken.

When Cory, James and I went to the Breakers mansion in Newburyport, we had to take a picture jumping in front of it. Cory wasn’t here to join me this time, so I took an honorary picture alone. I was the only person doing this. Note that there were hundreds of people there. Good to be weird.

Walking through the grounds and a not so secret garden.

There were these amazing bush arches throughout the gardens.

View of the castle from the secret garden.

Our first and probably only picture together during our honeymoon.

At this point we had to put all cell phones and cameras away. No photography is allowed in the castle which makes sense. It is someone’s home AND if you allowed photography, it would take freaking forever to make it through this. We made our way in a very long line through just a fraction of the rooms. Guides were in most to provide a bit of history, gush about being around with the Downton cast (and sometimes George Clooney) and to provide us with insight on which rooms were used in Downton and which were not.

The Carnarvon family also has a lot of interesting history. The 5th Earl of Carnarvon helped discover King Tut’s tomb and was a huge enthusiast of excavating in Egypt. His wife turned Downton into a hospital during World War I (sound familiar?). The only thing I wish there was more of was signage, so that I might be able to learn a bit more than what was in the tiny map they provided and what the guides had to say. Of course, I could have purchased the Highclere castle guide book for 10 pounds.

We exited the castle and headed to the Egyptian exhibit. As I mentioned above the 5th Earl of Carnarvon was responsible for finding King Tut’s tomb. He and his colleague, Howard Carter, discovered the nearly intact tomb in 1922. This exhibit is geared towards children, so there were plenty of signs here!

And then, as quick as we were here, it was time to go. But not without taking this beauty.

On our way out, we drove along a quiet dirt road. I spotted some sheep and decided to try and take a picture. Next thing we know, there’s another car headed straight for us… because we are in their lane. Because that felt so natural, that when distracted by a flock of grazing sheep, we DROVE IN THE WRONG LANE. Don’t worry, no one as hurt and we were able to move before the confused car up ahead had a chance to veer out of the way.

We returned to the city – after a quick pitstop to refill the rental car gas – and headed back to the flat once the car was back in Hammersmith. Rather than do anything interesting, we watched reruns of How I Met Your Mother and Futurama until our dinner reservations at The River Cafe.

The River Cafe was about a mile from our flat and sits on the Thames river. It’s unlike anything we’ve ever been to (decor wise) and filled with bright crazy colors, lots of white and looks like modern 80s (if that makes any sense…). The food was good, but still not competing with Sjavargrillid. Thought the view was not half bad.

When I told the waiter I had a gluten intolerance, it took six cooks to figure out what I could and couldn’t eat on the menu. In the end, they were willing to make just about anything with the exception of pasta, for me.

For an appetizer I ordered a buffalo mozzarella salad. Usually these salads are layers of tomato, basil and mozzarella. Instead, I received a bean, tomato and olive salad with grilled pumpkin and a one pound ball of mozzarella. I’m not kidding. It was ridiculous. James got a crab salad with polenta and tomatoes. He used some of my massive ball of mozzarella to eat his tomatoes. Because I had plenty to share.

For dinner I ordered a whole Dover sole and James had ravioli with ricotta and mushrooms. Our dessert consisted of some awesome gelato.

We returned to watch some British television and waited until our upstairs neighbor was done walking around – something that they like to do between 9 – 10 pm and 7 – 8 am.

Day 6: London

Today was the reason we came to London for our honeymoon. Today we went to the WB Harry Potter studio tour. The morning started early – we had to be at the Golden Tours Victoria office no later than 7:45 am to board a giant HP branded bus that would take us to the studio which is about 20 miles outside of the city.

This tour literally attracts everyone from around the world – from the U.S. to Japan to Germany to Russia and more.

The tour is… amazing. It opens up to the Great Hall set, and you are transported to a magical world – literally. We only had three hours to walk through all of it, but I could have easily spent more time. Both James and I bought the audio tour and were guided by Tom Felton (Draco) throughout. Since it would be ridiculous and lengthy to highlight each of the sets, I’ll stick with favorites. I loved the potions classroom – while simple in structural design, there were more than 500 bottles (and more than 1,000 when used in the movies) each hand labeled and filled with baked bones, rubber animals transformed into something that doesn’t exist in the Muggle world and more. Dumbledore’s office was amazing and finally we were offered an opportunity to get up close and personal with his instruments on display. All the books you see in there? Phone books! And finally, I loved the creature shop, where we learned how they made the creepy fetus Voldemort, Gringott goblins, dragons, Greyback and more.

The Great Hall. In the first movie, the director was set on having ONLY real food portrayed. And so it was. In later movies, the props department made lifelike goodies alongside some real dishes.

More Great Hall at the head table, where professors sat.

Makeup! Did you know that the scar was drawn on Daniel Radcliffe more than 6,000 times in the shooting of the eight movies? It also had to be drawn on his stunt double – that’s when he didn’t person his own stunts.

Boys dorm (and Ron’s bed in the front). This is the oldest set and was used throughout the first six movies. The beds were originally built to fit 10 and 11 year old boys. By the time they were 17 and 18, they no longer fit the 5’9″ bed frame and had to curl up or let their feet hang over for scenes filmed here.

Horcruxes. The woman who designed these spent months researching heirlooms from areas of the world these would have come from. How is that for authentic?

Gryffindor common room. The staircases to the dormitories were marked Girls and Boys above the arch to help the actors go in the correct direction.

Any letter that was close enough for the camera to see had to be handwritten. A few thousand were printed (think to the very first movie when Harry receives all of his letters from Hogwarts). The original letter was also too heavy for their owl actors to carry, so they also created a “letter lite” version for the birds.

On the Knight bus! The bus actually drove through the streets of London and routes had to be planned to accommodate its triple decker length.

Our first butterbeer! Neither James nor I could tell you what this tasted like. I had expected something like cream soda but it’s not. It is creamy though, and at points sweet and salty. It’s bubbly and not quite caramel flavored.

The end of the tour spits you out to a 1:24 model of Hogwarts which was used in every movie but the last (CGI had improved to a point where it was no longer needed). Every time J.K. Rowling revealed a new part of the castle, model makers spent three months updating the structure to accommodate new sections such as the owlery, the astronomy tower and the bridge.

Highlight of the trip? So far! We also got suckered into the gift shop and each purchased ourselves a giant mug of the Maurader’s Map (because the one I bought at the Museum of Science exhibition is finally starting to fall apart), as well as plenty of candy from Honeydukes.

Afterwards, James and I came back to the flat and went for another three mile run (this time in the opposite direction) to explore the neighborhood. We passed the Chelsea soccer stadium, ran by shops and discovered the one ice cream place in all of Fulham (this may be an exaggeration but this has not been an easy thing to find): Scoops!

When we returned from the run, we headed over to Whole Foods to pick up some scallops for dinner. But they closed at five. So we went to another grocery store. It also closed at five. Everything here closes at five on Sunday. I would be screwed in the states as often times we don’t get to the grocery until later afternoon/early evening on Sundays! We returned and beefed up our leftovers from yesterday with the addition of some sautéed vegetables. We spent the rest of the evening watching movies and TV, and hit the hay early.

Day 5: London

Emotionally, today was much better than yesterday. Some acceptance happened. Some coming to terms that I can’t change things back at home happened. Some new distractions happened.

Today was another no plans day – so we decided to check out the Tower of London. James and I are both history nerds, so give us a monument with 1,000+ years of stories to tell and we’re golden. Currently, the Tower is commemorating the 100th anniversary of World War I with more than 800,000 ceramic poppies to represent all of the soldiers who perished. (You can learn more about this exhibit here). It’s breathtaking. Every corner you discover more red vibrant glass flowers.

We started by climbing the perimeter wall and learning about its uses over the years, wars, looting, soldiers, kings and prisoners. At the end we waited in a ridiculous line to see the crown jewels, which are indeed quite beautiful and overwhelming but not necessarily worth a long line (we luckily got in line before this started snaking around the building).

Having had our fill of history, we decided to try out a burger place that I read is gluten free friendly and also amazing to boot – Honest Burger. It totally lived up to its reputation. This place was amazing, waitstaff SUPER friendly and atmosphere similar to a place back at home that we both love (Grass Fed in JP).

These fries.. were covered in fresh rosemary. It was so good. It was amazing.

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Oxford Street. We had two goals – Primark and Harrods. Completely opposite end of the class spectrum and both totally overwhelming in their own ways. For those of you who don’t know, Primark is a serious discount clothing store. Think H&M but cheaper. James fell in love with some very European jeans and bought a few pairs. I mostly purchased ugly comfy sweaters to wear around the house.

Harrods was overwhelming in that some handbags probably cost more than our honeymoon. We buzzed through to the gourmet food section (we really do love grocery shopping).

At this point, James and I were done. Spent. Exhausted. We made our way back to our flat in Fulham. After a quick trip to the grocery store, we spent the rest of the evening making dinner together, eating outside and now trying to find some non-reality TV on British cable. We’re failing pretty horribly.